The Client Who Changed Me

by Jeffrey A. Kottler, Jon Carlson

Although the impact that clients can have on therapists is well-known, most work on the subject consists of dire mental health professionals are taught early on to be on their guard for burnout, compassion fatigue, and countertransference. However, while these professional hazards are very real, the scholarly focus on the negative potential of the client-counselor relationship often implies that no good can come of allowing oneself to get too close to a client's issues. This sentiment obscures what every therapist knows to be that the client-counselor relationship can also effect powerful positive transformations in a therapist's own life. The Client Who Changed Me is Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson's testimony to the significant and often life-changing ways in which therapists have been changed by their patients. Kottler and Carlson draw not only upon their own extensive experience - between them, they have more than fifty years in the field - but also upon lengthy interviews with dozens of the country's foremost therapists and theorists. This novel work presents readers with a truly unique perspective on the business of not merely how it appears externally, but how practitioners experience it internally. Although these stories paint a complex and multi-layered portrait of the client-counselor relationship, they all demonstrate the profound and unexpected rewards that the profession has to offer.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Memoir

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Jeffrey A. Kottler is a professor, psychologist, author, consultant, workshop leader, keynote speaker, and social justice advocate who has spent the past 40 years working throughout the world to promote personal and professional development among professionals and marginalized groups. Jeffrey has worked as a teacher, counselor, therapist, and consultant in a variety of settings including a preschool, primary and secondary school, university, mental health center, crisis center, and corporate settings.

Reviews

[اینتاریوش · Rating 4 out of 5]

جالب بود.
مصاحبه با بسیاری از درمانگران و مشاوران دنیا که حتی بعضی مثل جان گری و آلبرت الیس شهرت زیادی دارند درباره تحولاتی که مسببش مراجعین خودشون بودن. در پایان همه یک جمع بندی از کلیه این تحولات میکنه. برام بیشتر مثل یک مقاله بزرگ بود که آزمودنی هاش مشاوران و درمانگرها بودن و فصل آخر مثل بخش نتیجه گیری مقالات علمی هست.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Profound change goes both ways *

The fourth book in Kottler and Carlson's you-can't-just-read-one-of-the-stories series, this book shows how the therapeutic process (when done right) inspires change in the client and therapist alike. The stories in this book do a wonderful job in challenging the traditional view of psychotherapy wherein the therapist is seen as an "expert" who catalyzes the client's change, yet remains unchanged. Instead, as these stories reveal, effective therapy centers on a reciprocal and human relationship which ultimately touches the lives of both the client and therapist. The theme of this book is nicely captured with the question of: "How could we be therapists and not be transformed profoundly in all kinds of ways?"

[Fahimeh Abedinejad · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب برای روانشناسان و مشاوران حرف زیادی برای گفتن داره، اما فکر کنم برای افرادی خارج از این رشته کمی ناملموس باشه.
این کتاب شامل ۲۴ روایت از ۲۴ درمانگر هست که هرکدام از یک مراجع تاثیرگذار خود سخن گفته اند.
بعضی از این روایت‌ها برای من به‌شخصه تکان‌دهنده بود اما بعضی‌هاشون نه زیاد و شاید حتی کسل‌کننده هم بود. در کل، کتاب برآیند این قصه‌هاست. همین که نویسنده برخلاف تصور غالب به تاثیرات مثبت و مفید مراجعان بر درمانگران پرداخته، خیلی ارزشمند هست و کمک میکنه خواننده هم کمی دیدش رو گسترش بده.

بخشی از متن کتاب:
“بدبخت‌ترین مردم آن‌هایی هستند که از زندگی معمولی و واقعی خود گریزان‌اند، گویی این معمولی بودن نشانه حقارت و شرمندگی آن‌هاست.
مگر انسان بودن چیز کمی است؟”

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. As a therapist in training as well as a client, this book has taught me a lot, both about possibilities of how to deal with challenging situations in therapy and about the possibility of actually making a difference as a client, too. This is a well written book with experiences from some great psychotherapists and it gives me hope about the efficiency of therapy as well as the client's role.

[Pallavi tomar · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a therapist in training, this book really spoke to me. The situations and dilemmas expressed here are one's we all face everyday, just what a therapist takes from a patient has never been portrayed so well by so many of them.

[No0or · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow the titel seems very attractive. Since I am ms.psychologist I really want t read it:)

[Deidra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it's a two-way street: therapists become better, too, because of their clients!